Critters got nowhere to go

OVER THE HEDGE (2006)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally reviewed in 2006)

I approach current animated films with trepidation. After all, I grew up with Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons and, putting it mildly, I favor the old more than the new. Still, 2004's "The Incredibles" was an amazing achievement and the best superhero movie in many moons. "Over the Hedge" is the latest from Dreamworks and what a fun time I had. It is far from greatness but any person aged 7 to 70 will enjoy it (though I suspect the tykes will enjoy it the most).

In the opening sequence, a raccoon named RJ (voiced by Bruce Willis) is trying to get a bag of nacho chips from a vending machine. We know the feeling when a bag of chips get stuck in the machine and we bang the dang thing mercilessly to no avail. RJ's fruitless attempts lead to a wagon of food that belongs to a giant bear named Vincent (voiced appropriately by Nick Nolte). RJ takes the food but it ends up on the main highway and trashed to smithereens by a truck. He has to get all this food back to Vincent or else he'll be eaten. This takes RJ to a small critter family consisting of a turtle named Verne (voiced by Garry Shandling) whose tail tingles when trouble is nigh, a highly caffeinated squirrel named Hammy (voiced by Steve Carell), a skunk with a low opinion of herself named Stella (Wanda Sykes), a family of possums led by the papa possum (voiced by William Shatner) and his daughter (Avril Lavigne), and finally a porcupine family led by the father, Lou (voiced by Eugene Levy), and the mother, Penny (voiced by Catherine O'Hara). Don't expect a return of Mitch and Mickey.

Based on a comic strip, the plot has to do with an oversized hedge, nicknamed Steve by the critters, that has been built during the winter season, the time of their hibernation. Now the critters have no chance of getting any decent food, only some tree bark. RJ needs help to get the wagon of food back to Vincent so he hoodwinks the furry creatures into stealing food from the humans. Along the way, there are some pointed jabs at the unhealthy junk food diet, the tossing of welcome amounts of food in trash receptacles, the enormity of SUV's, THX sound systems (perhaps a little jab there at George Lucas), the fixation on modern technological devices, and much more. To top it all off, we have a hysterical and truly EVIL woman with a cell phone attached to her ear (voiced by Allison Janney) who wants those critters decimated as "inhumanely as possible." Enter the Verminator (voiced by Thomas Haden Church) whose job is to do just that, not to mention devise contraptions to trap the critters if they ever enter her backyard.

"Over the Hedge" is a partly satiric tale of suburban encroachment, though it never truly dwells on the evils of suburban development. The movie seems to say that junk food and technology is evil because the humans consume both, and largely because both do a disservice to nature. But the critters enjoy both equally, including gorging on junk food and watching cable and DVD's in their own land, so I am unclear on what the message is. Perhaps it is an anti-deforestation tale but the filmmakers lose any real focus.

None of this matters in hindsight because "Over the Hedge" is dazzling to watch with some eye-opening visuals and lots of laughs. The critters are all fun personalities and, well, what can I say, Bruce Willis, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes and Nick Nolte's booming voice lend greatly to the film's success. The tykes will love it and will want to see it again and again on DVD. Whatever message is delivered will surely fly over their heads.